Which Mini DV player?
Which mini DV player
Hi. I have been reading through replies to this one with interest, my Canon XM2 had to have a new tape deck through too much playback work. I have a Panasonic MX350B as back up camera but always thought that the build quality of the Canon would give it a better chance of surviving playback treatment. The Panasonic has hardly been used for playback. Perhaps I was wrong? Who knows? I have now purchased a secondhand Canon MV1E (quite a rarity now) for use as a playback machine. The shape is ideal, it is a bit of a brick to look at, with a screen on the top. The controls are easily accessible on the back and with the screen flipped up it is just great for the job! The camera used to retail for around £1200 - £1400, I bought this one for £100. Mike is right though, you can't beat the little Sony player. Mike and I are both on the Kent Film Festival Committee and his Sony saved the day when the main unit let us down. Great if you have the funds to do it. I just hope the MV1 Brick keeps going.
- billyfromConsett
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- Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2007 3:27 pm
- Location: Consett
Hey Alan
I think you've been terribly unlucky with your XM-2. The feel and pictures of my XM-1 says it's a brilliant camera, so I want to give it just gentle use- and no playback work when I've got a crappy JVC budgeter (with optics so lacking I'd be embarressed to even show anybody footage from it recorded on a sunny day).
But Sony are still making walkmans thankfully if people can appreciate their place and stump up the price.
I think you've been terribly unlucky with your XM-2. The feel and pictures of my XM-1 says it's a brilliant camera, so I want to give it just gentle use- and no playback work when I've got a crappy JVC budgeter (with optics so lacking I'd be embarressed to even show anybody footage from it recorded on a sunny day).
But Sony are still making walkmans thankfully if people can appreciate their place and stump up the price.
which mini dv
Hi Billy, maybe I was unlucky with the Canon XM2 but it is now up and running as good as new. Super camera, I love it! (well I like it quite a lot) had brilliant service from Canon when it had to go back
and they were pretty quick. £238 for the repair so not too bad when you consider that was a new deck and drum assembly. I have faith in Canon cameras, still have my old analogue EX1 with interchangeable lens but now redundant. Always good to hear others comment about their favourite bits of kit.
and they were pretty quick. £238 for the repair so not too bad when you consider that was a new deck and drum assembly. I have faith in Canon cameras, still have my old analogue EX1 with interchangeable lens but now redundant. Always good to hear others comment about their favourite bits of kit.
One of the arguments I've heard put forward in favour of a dedicated playback deck like the sony is the low latency of the units. For instance my Canon XM1 is lovely, but it is incredibly slow to respond to commands from my editing software (both in premiere pro and final cut). It is not much better using the controls on the camera. The result is that shot logging and setting up batch capture lists is pretty annoying. I have no personal experience, but have been told that the latency (that is, the time between asking the machine to do something and it starting to do it) is much lower on the sony deck, being as it is intended to be primarily a playback device. Can anyone out there confirm this?
Stu
Stu
"Nobody knows anything." - William Goldman
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- Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 8:00 pm
- Location: Scotland
We have a sony mini DV player at Dalziel and I find that responsiveness is quicker than a camera. My Canon XM2 is also a bit slow to respond to commands from the camera playback controls. For club presentations I much prefer to use the Mini DV player but I can't justify the expense for personal use.
Brian Saberton
I have used decks for sourcing clips for some years, starting with the Sony DSR30, then a DSR11 and now a Sony HVR-M15U which is HDV/DV/DVCAM compatible. I find the response rapid and accurate when batch capturing large numbers of clips. As I work across a number of formats and standards (small cassetes, full size cassetes. PAL, NTSC, HDV,DV,DVCAM) it would be difficult to use a camera as a deck. The decks I have used are the Sony "low end/cheap" decks but they seem to be very robust and run for years. Both the DSR30 and the DSR11 are still in use in studios I sold them on to.
ned c
ned c
- billyfromConsett
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- Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2007 3:27 pm
- Location: Consett
The thread has wandered away from playing films at our clubs to using processes like batch capture; which isn't something I or anyone other member of my club has ever had the need (or resource to do).ned c wrote:I have used decks for sourcing clips for some years, starting with the Sony DSR30, then a DSR11 and now a Sony HVR-M15U which is HDV/DV/DVCAM compatible. I find the response rapid and accurate when batch capturing large numbers of clips. As I work across a number of formats and standards (small cassetes, full size cassetes. PAL, NTSC, HDV,DV,DVCAM) it would be difficult to use a camera as a deck. The decks I have used are the Sony "low end/cheap" decks but they seem to be very robust and run for years. Both the DSR30 and the DSR11 are still in use in studios I sold them on to.
ned c
In my experience of using the Sony video walkman and also a number of domestic/semi pro camcorders to play films, I can't perceive much of a difference- they both have a second or two of lag when the play button is pressed. And as Brian has commented, I can't justify the expense of paying 5 times the cost of a cheap camcorder just for importing and exporting movies from computers.